ATL02LA035 · Springer Longbow 150
Springer Longbow 150 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
From Space Coast Regional Airport (TIX) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL02LA035
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Springer Longbow 150
- Aircraft type
- Springer LONGBOW 150
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N150LB
- Operator
- Harold L. Springer · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Space Coast Regional Airport (TIX), Titusville, FLTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Maneuvering
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Airframe, component or system failure
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Incapacitation(carbon monoxide)
- Unknown › Maintenance, modification, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was observed to fly a circling maneuver, and then dive vertically into the ground with the engine running. Forensic toxicology revealed 31 percent carbon monoxide in the pilot's blood. Metallurgical examination of the exhaust muffler and heat exchanger assembly revealed the wall of the muffler was fractured through in the area where the exhaust pipe was welded to the muffler canister. Fracture surfaces darkly colored by corrosion were observed at the edge of the weld bead around the exhaust port over a circumference of approximately 180 degrees, and along several cracks branching outward from the weld bead. Fracture surfaces that displayed no corrosion branched out circumferentially from the corroded fracture surfaces on either end of the exhaust outlet. A review of Federal Aviation Administration Advisory Circular AC65-12A revealed in Chapter 2, Induction and Exhaust Systems, Exhaust System Repairs: "It is generally recommended that exhaust stacks, mufflers, tailpipes, etc., be replaced with new or reconditioned components rather than repaired".
Probable cause
The improper modification of the exhaust muffler which resulted in fractures that enabled the contamination of the cabin heating and ventilation system. The pilot subsequently became incapacitated by carbon monoxide poisoning, and the airplane descended uncontrolled into terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL02LA035
- Event ID
- 20020115X00070
- Case number
- ATL02LA035
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 2a95ea8029afc291c6822128add1564d146d7ca75d77b9317060ec15a40e2ad6; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:14:48.403Z.